General Motors will make fans to combat the worst cases of COVID-19

General Motors will do that manufacture fans that are critical to fighting the worst symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Thousand members of the automaker’s union staff will build the equipment for fan company Ventec Life Systems at the GM plant in Kokomo, Indiana, which was shut down during the pandemic. The goal is to eventually make 10,000 fans per month, according to GM and Ventec, but the companies have not said how long it would take to reach that output.

GM will also begin making surgical masks, an essential part for health professionals, next week at its stationary factory in Warren, Michigan. The automaker plans to make 50,000 masks per day within two weeks, with a possible total output of 100,000 per day.

The automaker joins a major collective effort by companies across the country to produce resources that the federal government is not providing to the parts of the country most affected by the pandemic. Tesla helps fans for New York hospitals. Apple has launched a COVID-19 screening app and is donating 10 million surgical masks. Google also makes and donates millions of masks. Ford is also working with 3M and GE to expand the range of both fans and masks.

The GM and Ventec announcement came about an hour after President Trump tweeted that he wanted General Motors to reopen a factory that no longer owns it, so the company can make thousands of fans out last night on Fox News, he said it was not necessary. It’s unclear why Trump thought GM could ‘reopen’ the factory in Lordstown, Ohio, as he not only praised sales last year, but also broke the news of the deal – where else? – on Twitter.

That Lordstown plant is now owned by a startup called Lordstown Motors, which plans to build electric pickups for commercial fleets. Representatives of the startup did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s anger tweets about GM came just hours after The New York Times published a report on how the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) withheld the $ 1 billion price tag proposed by the automaker and Ventec, hundreds of millions of which would go to GM to prepare the Kokomo plant for manufacturing fans. GM now says it provides sources “at cost”, though it’s not clear if it will record the reported nine-digit hit. A GM spokesman said the company “has not changed our approach to this project” and declined to comment on the President’s statements.

GM announced last week that it was working to improve Ventec’s fan production, and efforts will continue, the announcement said on Friday. But the administration was reportedly unhappy that GM and Ventec could make just a few thousand of them at the end of April – something Trump seemed to confirm on Friday.

“As usual with” this “General Motors, it just doesn’t seem to ever work,” Trump tweeted on Friday morning. “They said they would give us” very soon “40,000 fans. Now they say it will only be 6,000 at the end of April and they want a top dollar. Always mess with Mary B. Call” P “.

“P,” Trump clarified in a later tweet, refers to the Defense Production Act, a war bill that allows a presidential administration to compel private companies to manufacture certain necessary goods. Trump has spent weeks talking about relying on the Defense Production Act to alleviate shortages of critical equipment such as fans and surgical masks. But so far he actually refused to use it, despite repeated requests from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to do so. It is not yet clear whether Trump will invoke the Defense Production Act after his tweets on Friday.

When Trump appeared on Sean Hannity’s nocturnal Fox News show on Thursday, he falsely suggested that the tens of thousands of fans Cuomo asked for are unnecessary. “I feel like a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they will be,” he said said on the show. “I don’t think you need 40,000 or 30,000 fans.”

This widespread coverage along with a delayed government response to testing for the virus are major reasons why the United States now has more confirmed cases of COVID-19 than any other country in the world.